Adaptive Urban Lighting Is Not Simply Dimming: A PRISMA-ScR-Informed Prioritised Evidence Map of Standard-Constrained Control, Energy Savings, and Light-Pollution Proxies

Urban outdoor lighting is encouraged to reduce energy use and mitigate artificial light at night, but light-emitting diode (LED) replacement and adaptive-control effects are often conflated, as are carbon reduction and light-pollution mitigation. This prioritised evidence map uses the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) to report selection and narrative synthesis. Web of Science and Scopus yielded 617 exports and 446 screened records. The original prioritised extraction produced 22 studies; a retrospective title/abstract audit and targeted author adjudication added seven, yielding 29 studies: 18 core and 11 background. Six system dimensions distinguish sensing, decision logic, networking, optics, supply, and service constraints. Energy outcomes remain baseline-dependent. Two core studies provide direct intervention-linked evidence of skyglow or ecological response, but neither establishes a complete joint energy, lighting-service, and ecological assessment. Adaptive lighting is therefore best understood as standard-constrained, demand-responsive control rather than simple dimming. The map remains limited by English-only extraction, non-independent screening, artificial intelligence-assisted triage, and non-exhaustive full-text selection. Future evaluations should separate LED and control effects and link energy performance to measured environmental outcomes rather than infer mitigation from reduced power alone.